SMBs create new business models with social CRM

CRM makes sense for optimized marketing and reputation
building, but as SMBs are discovering social CRM, they’re actually creating new
business models, explained Brent Leary, co-founder and partner of CRM Essentials and author of a recent
research paper on SMBs and social CRM.

Leary goes on to explain that we’ve had adhoc examples of
companies using Facebook and Twitter to engage with customers, but now we’re
seeing a shift to make social CRM more strategic to business development. Here
are a couple of examples Leary noted:

Community as extension of
employee base: SMBs are consciously growing communities allowing the
participants to act as an organic service and sales force.

Extend products and services:
Using feedback from the community, SMBs are pulling in different cloud services
to create new offerings.